The new MCH likely carries old unfixed issues

[Kitfox]

Hello,

I'm sure by now there's a lot of job trailer breakdowns, but because most of them seem very excited about MCH, I thought I'd add my thoughts on the matter since I'm less optimistic.

You can find the job preview here: https://youtu.be/jaGxC7wnBDo?t=689

Here's a breakdown of the actions used:
-Bioblaster(?)
-Flamethrower
-Heated Split Shot
-Air Anchor(?)
-Heated Slug Shot
-Reassemble
-Heated Clean Shot
-Barrel Stabilizer
-Summon Rook(?)
-Wildfire
-Hypercharge(?)
-Cooldown
-Ricochet
-Cooldown
-Gauss Round
-Manual Wildfire Detonator(?)
-Auto-crossbow(?)
-Drill Shot(?)
-Rook Overload(?)

Now, that's a lot of new cool abilities, but I can't help but feel most people are blinded by the visual face-lift.

One of the core issues with the current MCH design is ping dependency caused by Rapid Fire and ogcd weaving. You can see from the trailer that unless they have turned Cooldown into an ogcd, Rapid Fire is baked into the new Hypercharge action that seems to cause Overheat for 8 seconds. Cooldown is used twice in quick succession with ogcds Ricochet and Gauss Round weaved in between, much quicker than base gcd speed.

This is the exact issue that made MCH horrible to play at high ping. To top that off, if Rapid Fire really is baked into the whole 8s of Overheat, it means that we're getting a longer Rapid Fire than we currently have making the matter worse. Currently Rapid Fire only affects 3 gcds, but in an 8s window you can put out 6 with the same old 0.5s error margin.

Since the new Overheating action seems to only cost 50 heat, it's likely we'll have more Overheat windows, which means more Rapid Fire and more issues with gcd clipping. Depending on what kind of damage drop-off we're looking at when missing gcds in the burst windows, the loss can be even worse than it currently is, but it's hard to say for sure at this point.

The new mecha summon (Rook?) seems to work somewhat similarly to current SMN's Bahamut in the sense that the final punch ability might need to be manually triggered like Akh Morn. Akh Morn has a notorious habit of ghosting, or not going off, near the end of the summoning window. Now, they have said that they're reworking pet abilities to be more responsive so this might not be an issue, but I'm slightly worried.

On the brighter side, the new Hypercharge(?) ability causing the Overheat will likely be a much better ability for the job than Flamethrower was and it should make it easier to time the transition into the burst rotation. The correct Flamethrower timing needed for Overheating currently requires almost blind muscle memory so this should be easier to use. The manual detonator for Wildfire was also much needed so the ability doesn't go to waste if the target jumps before the effect would naturally expire.

TL;DR: While the new battery gauge abilities are a cool addition to the arsenal and should help with the damage spread in the rotation, it's possible that the old core issues related to ping dependency will not be fixed.

[Kabooa]

From the Trailer I'm seeing

8s - "Wildfire" activated
7s - Cooldown 1
6s - Richochet
4s - Cooldown 2
3s - Gauss?
2s - Overload
1s - Auto Crossbow

In further detail, 8 ticks to 7 once the leading float value is 7 (7.99, 7.98, etc), so the first cooldown is happening at about 7.5.

Likewise the next cooldown is happening almost immediately after the timer rolls from 5 to 4 (4.XX), putting about 2.5s between each use of cooldown.

I'll acknowledge that this could just be for typical "I don't care about uptime" trailer shenanigans, but may I ask what is making you think there's rapidfire built in?

[Kitfox]

may I ask what is making you think there's rapidfire built in?

To me it seems like there's 2s between each Cooldown instead of 2.5s, but I don't know if proper frame-by-frames are possible with youtube, so I could be wrong. It just seems faster than 2.5s which makes me think of lazy execution with lowered gcd. It could just be an illusion caused by skill speed, though, and I'd be extremely happy to be wrong.

Edit: The best I could do with youtube tools got me a difference of 141 frames or 2.35s. Definitely doable with just skill speed but also certainly faster than the base gcd of 2.5s.

[Kabooa]

2.35 is also discouraging as that's quite a bit to have on what we can assume to be starter 80 gear.

Ugh, first I couldn't wait for the liveletter, now I can't wait for the embargo to lift for more details.

THIS EXPANSION IS NOTHING BUT CAN'T-WAITING

[Grimoire-M]

I'm curious about how the mech will interact with the rest of the kit. You have to keep in mind that there's no ammunition to weave anymore based on the UI and what we saw, which does at least combat the clipping issues somewhat, and it seems likely the new skills shown are intended to replace that as our filler. I'm hoping that means you're not encouraged to use any of those new abilities under Wildfire in order to set up the mech on the next Wildfire, akin to how SMN currently delays activating Bahamut till their next Aetherflow rotation but is also encouraged to burn DWT and their initial Aetherflow asap in order to accelerate him out. Otherwise it would likely be worse.

While the heat gauge is there it's notable that nothing that we saw other than the standard bullets and Barrel Stabilizer generated it. One would hope that means Overheat is gone, but we can't rule that out entirely yet either as they don't actually cap heat in the trailer. At the very least, you wouldn't be able to Wildfire and Overheat at the same time, since it appears that Wildfire costs heat now.

All in all it's a hot mess till we get our hands on it.

[Seraphor]

Overheat and Gauss are gone, that's already made MCH 100% better.

[Kitfox]

At the very least, you wouldn't be able to Wildfire and Overheat at the same time, since it appears that Wildfire costs heat now.

Wildfire doesn't cost heat in the video. There's a separate ability used after it that uses the current Hypercharge animation. It causes the heat gauge to start a timer akin to Overheat at the cost of 50 heat. So while it might not be called Overheat, there's certainly some kind of buff being used in conjunction with Wildfire in the video.

[Dyvid]

First on Bahamut ghosting, missing Akh Morn. This happens because the Summoner and Demi-B are moving, and Demi-B place priority on moving over casting. Shouldn't be a problem since MCH pet is at close range fighting.

So what I notice is that bullets increase heat gauge and tools increased battery gauge. When the MCH placed Wildfire, the heat gauge dropped and started spinning with a countdown from 8. The MCH also manually detonated it instead of the countdown. It also took "BOB" 6 seconds from summon to actually get to his target, SE really needs to work on that one before launch. I also suspect Bio Blaster and Flamethrower apply DoTs now.

[Kabooa]

My own speculation is that there is no Rapid Fire in use here, however, double weaving remains a necessity depending on what Wildfire and 'Not Overheat' entail.

In 8 seconds, at base speed, that should be a Cooldown at 7.5, 5.0, 2.5, so with increased speed that'll be 7.5, 5.X, 2-3.X, and 0.X for four total GCDs.

Tools seem to be OGCD, so we know that Gauss, Richochet, Auto Crossbow, and Giga Drill Breaker are here. It is unclear if it would be worth attempting to do Bio/Flame in the Not Overheat window, as well as whether we retain Heartbreaker or gain other OGCDs not shown.

And while it is not currently a thing, it is unknown if Gurenn Lagann contributes to Wildfire. For the sake of a "Worst Clunk Scenario" lets say it is, but independent of Overheat.

It is currently not known if Wildfire and 'Overheat' will line up as they do currently, but we can assume that with the resource stocking, that you will always have overheat for Wildfire. The better question is how the Tools line up with Wildfire.

We also do not know Cooldown's relation to the other shots in terms of potency, or if Cooldown even just straight up replaces those shots. We will work off the assumption that cooldown replaces other shots.

A wildfire window would thus look something like...

Summon Gurenn Lagann up to 10s prior.
Finish off current Shot Combo.
During the OGCD - Wildfire + Overheat
Cooldown 1
Tell Gurenn Lagann to Giga Drill Break
Cooldown 2
two of the four OGCDs
Cooldown 3
Two of the four OGCDs
Cooldown 4
Overheat ends. Trigger Wildfire (or let it expire if trigger is unnecessary)

I want to be optimistic and say they've probably considered this scenario is still unfriendly to latency spikes, but that is worst case.

[XgungraveX]

Overheat and Gauss are gone, that's already made MCH 100% better.

good im glad its gone such a turn off in stormblood so clunky i just had to shelf the class.